puswad@pawl12.pawl.rpi.edu (Mark-Jason Dominus) (01/26/88)
Well, I've been programming HypeCard for quite a while now, and I can't
make up my mind whether I love it or hate it. I gives me an overwhelming
feeling af having been released before it was ready, but I guess I'd rather
have an incomplete version now than a complete one six years from now.
But there are a whole bunch of gripes I have about it that need airing.
Maybe we can get some discussion going.
It's too modal. The attributes and script dialogs should have
been good ol' modeless dialog boxes, resizable, moveable, the works. I should
be able to have both on the screen at the same time.
There's not even a way to get a background, card, or stack
script wihtout going through the corresponding attributes
box first. There's no way to go from the script
box back to the attributes box. This is all wrong.
The massage box only takes one line messages. It should
be a multiline thing with a little button that says "run" or something. This
kind of thing was implemented very well in Mac Pascal; I don't see why it
couldn't be carried over.
In fact, two messgae boxes, a multiline one for input and a single-line
one for output, might not be a bad idea. What does everyone think?
You can't copy more than one button at a time.
Arrgh!!! I.e., HypeCard does not support shift-clicking. Need I say more?
Getting invisible buttons and fields to line up right is too difficult.
there ought to be a simple command to temporarily show all their rectangles.
There aren't enough appearance choices. Why can't I have transparent
round-rect buttons?
The only way to change the font or size of the name of a button is from
the message box. What an annoyance. There should be buttons and stuff
in the attributes box.
When you select the text-paint tool, you should get font and style menus,
just like in every other Mac application.
"Ask" and "Answer" won't let you define the size of the dialogs
they produce. If you want to ASK "What famous seventeenth century play-
wright wrote 'Man and Superman'", then you are out of luck; it won't fit
in the box.
"Answer" always makes one button a default. You should be able to decide
what the default is, if any.
There is no "Doubleclick" event handler.
There should be abbreviations for common keywords, like "cf" for "card
field". HypeCard itself could expand these abbreviations out to the full
form, just like old BASIC editors did. (Rember using ? for "print"?)
You should be able to make a set of seven buttons that all have the same
script. If you change the script for one button, you change the script for
all of them. Something like a "button template".
I have some other gripes, but that's enough for one post.
What do y'all like or hate about it? Does anybody have any exciting
scripts to distribute? Etc.
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"Turing Machine tape is strongly reminiscent of toilet paper."
dominusm@b21.cs.rpi.EDU puswad@pawl.rpi.EDU FG8M@rpitsmts.bitnet
"Crash Dominus is the world's most dangerous math major." - A. Ihnatko
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